(FILES) AILA, or Artificial Intelligence Lightweight Android, presses switches on a panel it recognizes during a demonstration at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH stand at the 2013 CeBIT technology trade fair on March 5, 2013 in Hanover, Germany. (AFP Photo / Carsten Koall) / AFP

Now that the mystery surrounding the elusive Google barges in the San Francisco Bay reported last month has been brought to light, the Silicon Valley giant is announcing another new endeavor: robots.

Yes, robots. Speaking to the
New York Times for an article published this week, Google
exec and former Android CEO Andy Rubin revealed that the search
engine company’s next big project is predictably another
space-age effort that, if history is any precedent, is sure to
transcend the realm of science fiction and soon be as commonplace
as, say, the cell phone.

"His last big bet, Android, started off as a crazy idea that
ended up putting a supercomputer in hundreds of millions of
pockets," Google CEO Larry Page told
USA Today this week. "It is still very early days for this,
but I can't wait to see the progress."

According to Wednesday’s article in the Times, Rubin and company
are indeed exploring with robotics, and not exactly starting from
scratch, either. Google has rather secretly acquired seven new
technology companies during the last six month, the paper’s John
Markoff reported, and in doing so have added the names of some
rather impressive robotics professionals to their portfolio.

Don’t freak out just yet, though: Google isn’t necessarily
assembling an army of robo-overlords. Markoff reported that while
Google isn’t saying much about what they’re working on, it will
be a project not aimed at consumers. Instead, Google is expected
to use their new robotics teams to dabble in manufacturing in
order to compete with another big internet name that so-far has
been largely unscathed by Google wrath on the web: Amazon.

Only last week, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced preliminary plans
to rely on unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, to deliver
packages to customers in select US markets. And while the
jury is still out on whether or not Amazon will be able to pull
that feat off, acquiring some a slew of robotics experts and
putting them under one of the most valuable companies in the
world will likely give Google an advantage, or at least, a
fighting change, at revamping the way it does business as well.

"Google's robotics ambitions and Bezos's drone PR should be a
reminder to investors that they are not only investing in the
trend lines of the current financials, but in the future vision
and broad ambitions of these companies," Ben Schachter, an
analyst at Macquarie, wrote in a note to clients sent Wednesday
and cited USA Today. "Amazon and Google clearly are going to
invest in projects that may not bear fruit for 5-10 years, if at
all.”

Speaking to the Times, Rubin said that time was a factor and was
hoping to work with enough runway to fully realize the project in
around ten years’ time.

Of course, what exactly they do with their robots is still
something to be discovered. Even if Google doesn’t want to use
new tools to tackle consumers directly, the sort of technology
they’re efforting presents itself with an array of opportunities.

"They aren't going for the consumer market," Gary
McMurray, the associate director of industry at Georgia Tech's
Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines, told
ABC News. "They can use their robots for marketing, or
they can go for something in manufacturing."

"Google is a very forward-thinking company," said
McMurray. "I think [this initiative] fits in with what
they're trying to do as a company."

Among the companies recently acquired by Google, according to the
Times, are Schaft of Japan and Industrial Perception of the
United States, who’ve recently dabbled in developing humanoid
robots and a computer vision system with robotic arms,
respectively. Google has also recently acquired robot makers
Meka, Redwood and Bot & Dolly, as well as two design firms
that specialize in high-tech products.